The Interior Scroll reading group

Monthly discussions on the feminist avant-garde

I’ve just finished Marina Warner’s Helen Chadwick: The Oval Court, and was absolutely blown away by it. The Afterall title is part of the One Work series, which focuses on artworks that have significantly shaped the way we understand art and its history. I feel totally inspired by the form, which is not dissimilar to the book I’ve been cobbling together this year.

In short, The Oval Court (1986) is one component of Chadwick’s diptych On Mutability. Sensual, radical and provocative, the installation caused both puzzlement and uproar at the time of its presentation as it distressed the anti-eroticism campaigners of the feminist movement, who criticised women artists for using their own desirability in their practice.

As the book has inspired me so much, I want to bring a group of readers together in discussion. So, please join me for the first session of what I hope to be a monthly reading group on the feminist avant-garde. I want it to be a welcoming, informal and low pressure space, so there is no obligation to speak up - you can just listen in, if you like. I’ll set a series of questions and provide some visual stimulus. Let’s see where the hour takes us.

Session 1: The Oval Court

Sunday 19th March 2023, 5-6pm (GMT) via Google Meet.

Purchase your copy of Helen Chadwick: The Oval Court here.

Please RSVP by replying to this newsletter or email me directly on rl.ashenden@gmail.com, and I’ll send over a link.